When Meg said she was having a messy day, I wish I had taken heed. I was too, but I didn’t realize it fully yet.

Last night when I was falling asleep I was thinking I could conceivably spend a night out there. Now, after a crew day, showered, I still have that restoration dust in me. But I could stay out on the balcony where the wind would blow a lot of things out of me.

It got messy for me when I very reluctantly talked myself into helping Meg paint the equipment room. I broke a rule I made years ago never to paint. I am terrible at it. Within about 15 minutes I had knocked the can of paint she was using off the ladder when she left, briefly, to help Cooper move a door through the curved stairwell

So yeah I made a hot mess. When I got back to Miller’s I heard a customer say, rather rudely I thought, “…arm’s covered in paint…” Okay, I won’t paint out there anymore.

I cleaned up the floor and ladder, and took to the hatch covers on the Watch Gallery and the ladders, which are rusty. I want to see how the sealer will work, and then paint them after we finish the rooms. Be good to get the stairwell done so we can pull up the ramboard. Cleaned up, generator and the shop vac, lots of garbage, high tide, and Tony to pick us up.

And though we have made many faulty comments, one I will stop making is “It’s always cool at the lighthouse.” Today was brutal because of the humidity, and we felt like limp dishcloths—or should I say hot messes—at the end of the day. In fact we split a half hour early.

Lighthouse Log Book is a series of stream of consciousness writings by Executive Director Erin Urban after each Crew date at Robbins Reef. It’s informal and meant to impart a sense of the energy of the volunteers and the work they accomplish in regular seven-hour workdays to Robbins Reef Lighthouse.